SWITZERLAND | Clarification Issued for Eight Day Short-Term Work Exemption and Q1 L-Permit Quota for EU/EFTA Nationals Reached
Two major announcements were made by the Swiss authorities recently.

Eight-Day Short-Term Work Permit Exemption Defined

While the Swiss authorities have historically allowed foreign nationals to work in Switzerland for up to eight days per calendar year without notification or work authorization, there remained long-term confusion regarding whether these eight days were calculated against the individual employee only or against both the employee and his/her employer in Switzerland. Recently, however, Swiss authorities have provided official guidance as to when the eight day work permit exemption applies to an individual and/or a company.

The official differentiation is now determined by the country from which the foreign employees are being assigned to Switzerland:

• If foreign nationals are assigned to Switzerland from a country outside of the EU/EFTA, the eight days are counted against only the employee.
• If foreign nationals are assigned to Switzerland from a country within the EU/EFTA, the eight days are counted against the employee and the assigning company per calendar year. The nationality of an expatriate is not a factor. During the eight days a company can assign as many employees as needed without a work permit. After the eight days all employees (including those who will enter Switzerland later during the calendar year) must register their presence through an online system. Once registered, the foreign nationals can work up to 90 days (also counted against the company) without a work permit.

CHILE / MOROCCO | Apostilled Public Documents to be Accepted Beginning Summer 2016
In December 2015, Chile and Morocco signed the Hague Apostille Convention with their memberships becoming fully effective in August 2016. The Convention allows the signing member nations to accept public documents (e.g. birth, marriage, and death certificates) issued by another member nation for legal purposes, should the document in question be affixed with an apostille certification.

Some benefits of being a signing member of the Hague Apostille Convention include reduced time and cost spent processing documents, consular staff abroad have more time to address other requests from individuals and companies, and an increase in foreign trade.

Sponsoring employers and employees going on assignment to either Chile or Morocco should see shorter document gathering and finalization stages of their immigration procedures. It is important to note, however, that both the country issuing the document and the country where the document will be used must be signatories to the Hague Apostille Convention. Morocco will become a member on August 14 and Chile on August 30 of this year.

Required documents for the online application step include, but are not limited to, a copy of the applicant’s passport, visa sticker, and arrival stamp. After the online application is submitted, an electronic confirmation will be received within 3-7 days. A printed version of this confirmation must be included in the applicant’s final in-person KITAS application filing and submission of biometric information.

The KITAS/MERP online process is expected to roll out in other locations in Indonesia; however, there may be some delays during this transition. Currently, the online KITAS/MERP application procedures are only applicable to initial applications and not for foreign nationals seeking to renew their work and residence authorization in Indonesia.